@ UCL Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art at 6pmbyDr Cadence Kinsey

Ahead of the exhibition opening, which is part of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, nominee, Zanele Muholi visited the History of Art Department at UCL to talk about her work as an artist and activist. Her nominated project, Faces and Phases 2006-14, explores black LGBTI identity in post-apartheid South Africa and beyond. Working closely with participants, Muholi’s work represents the life of the community against a backdrop of homophobia, transphobia, discrimination and violence. However, as Muholi explained, traditions of resistance imagery – of pain and protest – are offset in her work by depictions of tenderness and love.

The daily experience of life and living, of weddings and funerals, become moments that bring the community together. Muholi also spoke about how her work connects with Inkanyiso, the project she developed in response to the lack of visual histories and visual literacy skills training produced by and for black LGBTI persons. Through this project, the community can work together to develop new languages of self-representation.

2015 Mar.13 Muholi presenting her work to students and allies UCL, UK. Photo by Lerato Dumse

Taken as a whole, Muholi described her work as visual activism: a project of producing positive representations, of authoring new spaces and even new realities. By moving away from direct representations of hate and violence, Muholi’s work constructs a new archive for the black LGBTI community. Because the photograph can enter many different kinds of spaces, or go ‘viral’ as Muholi put it, these images have a life beyond the gallery: they are put to work online, on social media, to be shared amongst those who created them. As such, it seemed to me that the power of the project was that it does not simply document but actively intervenes in the lives of those it represented.

Muholi’s talk was followed by a lively debate that centred on her activist work. One provocative topic was how the legacies of violence in apartheid might be felt in the kinds of hate crime that shadow her work as an artist and activist working with black LGBTI individuals, raising issues of accountability and responsibility for those who perpetuate the violence. Other questions focused on possible moments of solidarity with other African nations, and cases from Zambia and Nigeria were discussed. This left us with the open question of how to attend to difference – to local issues, need or resources – while developing ways to work together.